Pages

Sunday, March 15, 2015

You have to wonder if the Phillies are doing their research when they go out and hire pitching anymore.

Several of the last pitchers that the Phils have picked up have had some serious issues and medical conditions that have left them on the injury list for a long time.

Cliff Lee isn't even one of them, he was given a long term deal when he was fairly healthy, now his career is in jeopardy of being over. He still has time left on his contract though, I don't think he'll be opting out of $25M this year for anything. Would you? Just another reason why the Phillies are in the shape that they are in on the field and in the management department.

Let's look at a few pitchers of the last few years that the Phils have seen a bust out of:

Latest:

Aaron Harang - Harang doesn't look like he's going to make it out of Spring Training. A 1-year deal at $5M - Harang is 37 year old, and in the twilight of his career. Lower back injuries have sidelined him for most of Spring Training so far. Does this sound familiar?

Chad Billingsley: Like Harang, he used to be fairly good. He was offered a contract by the Phils, with a base salary of $1.5M and the incentives to make up to $6.5M - but he too is not healthy. Chad had Tommy John surgery last year.

Miguel Gonzalez: Faster that you can say enchilada, Gonzalez was signed to a multi-year deal with the Phillies after he defected from Cuba. The Phils would probably be better off paying his airfare back there as they originally signed for for 3 years and $12M and he's been a complete bust.

Previous:

Mike Adams: Adams was the recipient of $12M from the Phillies for 2 seasons, the bulk of what he has made as a professional pitcher in the MLB - he made more in those 2 years than all of the other 8 years combined he played baseball. Problem was he was injured from the start and only pitched in 42 innings. His pay for each inning he pitched in for the Phils, was $285,000 per inning.

AJ Burnett: Phillies paid him $15M for a year - he promptly went out and lost 18 games for the team with a 4.59 ERA. In the offseason, he said he was injured the whole season with the Phils. He signs with Pittsburgh in 2015 for $8.5M and says "This is where I belong" ... What a crock!

I am not even going to bring up $16M for Roy Oswalt because that seems like ancient history even though it goes back to 2011. He too was injured.

Add all of this money that was practically thrown away and you could have had a decent couple of players with money left over. This organization has been on autopilot to disaster for some time now, is anyone going to wake up and take over this ship?